Shiv Sena retracts after making offensive comments on Gujarati community in Saamna editorial

New Delhi: It seems that Shiv Sena and controversy go along really well as hours after taking spiteful potshots at the Gujarati community living in Maharashtra through an editorial column in its mouthpiece Saamana, the hard line saffron party pulled back from the article in order to salvage the situation.

After secreting verbal volleys against the Gujarati community, even going to an extent of comparing them with ‘sex workers’ who used Maharashtra for developing cities in their own states, Shiv Sena then retracted claiming the community had always stood besides late Balasahab Thackeray as a symbol of harmony with Hindus and development.

The editorial in Saamana had said that the Gujarati and other trader communities must celebrate Maharashtra’s foundation day with fervor.

An editorial published in Saamna on Thursday said: “The Gujarati and other bepari (trader) communities in Maharashtra which united with pride as Gujaratis for (Narendra Modi) must now come together for Shivray's (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj) Maharashtra and join in the celebrations on Maharashtra's foundation day.”

“All these traders who have been saying they are happy with their businesses and have nothing to do with politics came together to ensure that a person from their state and caste becomes the prime minister. But how many of them have ever stepped out of their high rises to celebrate Maharashtra Day,” it said.

“Living in Mumbai, they have enjoyed the benefits of the wealth. They have filled their coffers. They have exploited Mumbai like a prostitute. People who came here carrying a lota have created cities of gold for themselves. On the strength of this wealth created from Mumbai, these industrialists are manipulating Indian polity. They are scheming who should be made the prime minister and who should be brought down,” said the editorial.

“The Gujarati and other trader communities which came together with pride for Modi should now come together for Shivaji Maharaj’s Maharashtra and celebrate the birth of this state,” it said.

All the editorials written in Saamana are checked and cleared by Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray but sources in the party claimed that since he is on a vacation, he was not able to check these articles, which are written mostly by magazine’s executive editor and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut.

However, several media reports claim that this editorial was not appreciated and liked by Uddhav and he immediately urged the Shiv Sena leaders to distance themselves from this rancorous editorial, keeping in mind the assembly elections in the state in October.

Raut claimed that the editorial was not aimed at any particular community and there were no nefarious intentions behind it, adding that money earned by non-Maharashtrians in the state should be reinvested here for the welfare of the natives.